Tag Archives: menstrual hygiene management

Guest editorial: tackling the stigma and gender marginalization related to menstruation via WASH in schools programmes(abstract/order info)
Menstrual hygiene management has been defined as: ‘Women and adolescent girls using a clean menstrual management material to absorb or collect blood that can be changed in privacy as often as necessary for the duration of the menstruation period, using soap and water for washing the body as required, and having access to facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials’ (UNICEF and WHO, 2014). However, menstrual hygiene is not just about the management of the menstrual period but also the need to address societal beliefs and taboos surrounding the issue.

Until recently, the development sector including WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) had not explored and attempted to address the challenges related to Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), an important issue affecting the health, dignity and privacy of millions of girls and women on a daily basis. It is great to have a whole issue of Waterlines dedicated to MHM, as it will help us, the maledominated, engineering-based sector, to increase our understanding of this aspect of the development work we do on a daily basis.

Mainstreaming menstrual hygiene management in schools through the play-based approach: lessons learned from Ghana(full text)
The study objective was to identify and document the effectiveness of the play-based approach in promoting menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in schools and share lessons learned. The study used a mix of approaches including qualitative and quantitative techniques. The author carried out an exploratory evaluation on the promotion of MHM activities as part of WASH in Schools programmes in 120 public schools in Ghana. Comparison was drawn between 60 schools currently using the play-based approach in promoting MHM, and 60 schools which are not using the play-based approach.

Developing games as a qualitative method for researching menstrual hygiene management in rural Bolivia(abstract/order info)
In 2012, Emory University and UNICEF conducted a multi-country formative study to gain a global perspective of girls’ experiences. A compendium of tools was created to ensure investigation of common themes across all settings. This paper describes the process of adapting the focus group discussion (FGD) tool for Bolivia into a board game as a method to ease girls’ discomfort discussing menstruation and elicit richer data.

The approach utilizes a baseline cross-sectional survey to quantify WASH practices and reported health history among a randomly-selected subset of girls and women from each of the four life-course groups in tribal, rural, and urban areas of Odisha, and a set of overlapping sub-studies each testing focused hypotheses about pathways between sanitation access, SRPS, hygiene behaviour and health.

Some Key Findings (for Practitioners):

While most sanitation challenges are universal for women, their relative severity and frequency differed in urban, rural, and tribal areas and among young women, married women, and older adults. Strategies for improving latrine access and use could potentially utilize context-specific promotional strategies to
encourage behaviour change.

Sanitation encompasses much more than defecation, specifically within the Indian context. The act of defecation is embedded within other behaviours, including post-defecation cleaning, ritual bathing, and changing clothing; as well as menstrual management and urination. Strategies to improve sanitation
coverage in India must be aware of how defecation practices are positioned within these larger behavioural patterns and responsive strategies are needed in order to facilitate adoption and use of sanitation technologies.

The 3rd virtual MHM in WinS conference will build on the content and recommendations of the prior two conferences and continue the effort to fill in the gaps in the existing knowledge and advocacy around this important issue. The one-day conference will bring together academics and health, gender, education, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) experts from around the world currently implementing MHM-related activities.

Conference objectives:

To share recent research findings that relate to various aspects of MHM in WinS

To highlight school-based MHM program descriptions and their potential for scale

To share recommendations about how new MHM programs can be developed by WinS practitioners

The conference had 4 objectives; a) to raise awareness on the impact of poor menstrual management, b) advocate for policy review, c) develop strategies for operationalizing existing policy, d) demonstrate sustainable good practices on menstrual management. The overall aim was to explore how best the School Health Policy can ensure girls get all the support they need to complete school and reach their full potential.

Uganda’s female parliamentarians led by controversial Speaker of Parliament Hon. Rebecca Kadaga have called on the government to provide sanitary pads for all schoolgirls in the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme. Kadaga launched her call at the Annual General Meeting of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) on 16 May 2014.

The call was spurred by IRC’s research with SNV in Ugandan schools, which showed there is a higher likelihood of adolescent girls staying home during their periods. Girls in the 140 schools surveyed reported missing from 8 to 24 school days per year, resulting in lagging behind or some dropping out of school.

In August this year, IRC will present results from the Uganda study at the Menstrual Hygiene Management Conference taking place in Kampala, Uganda. NETWAS Uganda and partners are organising this event to encourage learning about what can be done to improve menstrual management in schools, institutions and communities.

In 2012, UNICEF and the Center for Global Safe Water at Emory University initiated a programme to support collaborative research focused specifically on exploring the MHM challenges faced by female students in Bolivia, the Philippines, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. The project includes developing or
strengthening MHM-related programming in schools in those countries.

Emory University sent research fellows to work with UNICEF and its in-country WASH in Schools partners on the programme. The assessment activities conducted and themes explored were guided by an ecological framework that covers societal, environmental, interpersonal, personal and biological factors. Questions for qualitative data collection were created to investigate and understand the personal challenges and needs girls have during menstruation in the school setting.

This issue highlights Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28, 2014. The idea for Menstrual Hygiene Day started in May 2013 when WASH United pioneered May #MENSTRAVAGANZA. This was a 28-day social media campaign cycle dedicated to generating awareness around menstruation and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) as important considerations within water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) development initiatives.

Resources in this issue include a MHM toolkit by the SPLASH (Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene) Project in Zambia, links to the Menstrual Hygiene Day website, fact sheets, events, and other resources.

EVENTS

May 28, 2014 – Menstrual Hygiene Day 2014. | Website | Fact Sheets | Toolkit |Global Myths & Taboos | Events & Celebrations |
The mission of Menstrual Hygiene Day is to help break the silence and build awareness about the fundamental role that good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) plays in enabling women and girls to reach their full potential.

August 12–14, 2014 Menstrual Hygiene Management Conference, Kampala, Uganda. (Link)
Join NETWAS Uganda and partners for this exciting event and learn about practical approaches and tools to achieve healthier, affordable, and better results in menstrual management in schools, institutions, and communities. The aim of the conference is to promote menstrual management awareness and advocacy. The primary target audiences are the different partners that want to see menstrual management concerns addressed both at institutional and community levels.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Waterlines January 2015 – Call for Papers on Menstrual Hygiene Management and WASH in Schools.(Link)
This edition of Waterlines, coordinated with the help of UNICEF, will cover steps to improve women’s menstrual management in their everyday lives and in humanitarian situations; and it has a special focus on girls menstrual management. The copy deadline is August 1, 2014.

REPORTS

Menstrual Hygiene Management Mini-Toolbox for Teachers and Schools in Zambia, 2014. SPLASH (Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene) Project. (Link)
This toolkit was designed to help classroom and guidance teachers, and other school personnel in Zambian primary schools who are carrying out MHM programs or activities in their school. As MHM becomes more established in schools more and better tools will be developed and added to the toolkit. It should be considered a work in progress.

Hello, I received more details on this information request that I hope will be helpful. Please let me know if you have any relevant info: ----------------------------- Is there any academic research that has been conducted that looks at levels of fecal contamination of surrounding environment due to anal cleansing. Obviously if this is connected with open de […]

Hello. I've been working with Andrew Whitesell at Beaumont for the past few months and we would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on the FSOI project. Fecal Sludge Omni-Ingestor Project update Start & End Date: 2011 – TBD (to be determined; the contract has been extended to accommodate a changing or growing scope of work) Type of Fu […]

Dear all One of our cewas-ians needs your support to win a Swiss Sustainability Prize (Prix eco Swisscanto. She needs a few more likes in order to win the first prize of 15'000 CHF to support her work. See her request below (Deadline is tomorrow Wednesday 04.03.15 - so please be fast ): Please click on this Facebook link (http://goo.gl/Rrr1pi) and […]

Hi Nicola, I am a colleague of Moritz and one of my research fields is quantifying and characterising faecal slugde on a city-wide scale. The hyperlink to the FAQ project, Moritz refers to in his post leads you to a website with publications about the approach we have implemented in Kampala/Uganda and Hanoi/Vietnam. I could see the application of the latrine […]

Hi Elisabeth, No - I wasn't thinking about it for travelers (if you mean international travelers - although I suppose they might use it too), but anyone who is visiting a town and needs to find a loo. And as well as finding the facility in the first place, I was thinking more as a means to monitor the quality of service provided by the operators of publ […]

With the fact that nearly 35% of Delhi slum dwellers still practise open defecation, most of community and public toilets in the capital remains non-functional; the present scenario doesn’t seem to meet the goals of Delhi Master Plan for making the city Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2015. In this article, Ajay Sinha, Chief Operating Officer, Feedback Foundat […]

We have chosen the winners of our Picturing CLTS photo competition. Thank you to everyone who submitted photos. It was great to see such diverse depictions of CLTS in action and of many related aspects like handwashing, inclusive WASH and monitoring.